Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 British-American epic drama–romance film directed by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. It is set in Russia between the years prior to World War I and the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922, and is based on the Boris Pasternak novel of the same name, immensely popular in the West, but banned in the Soviet Union at the time. For this reason, the film could not be made there and was instead filmed mostly in Spain.
The critics were generally disappointed, complaining of its length at over three hours, and claiming that it trivialised history, but acknowledging the intensity of the romantic drama and the treatment of human themes. Over time, however, the film's reputation has improved greatly. It is now regarded as among Lean's finest films, as well as one of the best films of the epic genre, ranked by the American Film Institute in 1998 as the 39th greatest American film of all time. The film won five Academy Awards, and as of 2014 is the eighth highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation.Synopsis
The film takes place mostly against a backdrop of the pre-World War I years, World War I itself, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War. A narrative framing device, set in the late 1940s to early 1950s, involves KGB Lieutenant General Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the daughter of his half brother, Doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie). Yevgraf believes a young woman, Tanya Komarova (Rita Tushingham), may be his niece and tells her the story of her father's life.
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